Category: Software, Data, Microsoft, container, shell

If you think Windows software security is bad today, then you missed the “good old days” of Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE), Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), and Office macros security holes. While DDE and OLE are now nothing but the source of nightmares for gray-haired Windows developers, Windows software macros security holes live on. Giovanni Vigna,VMware‘s Senior Director of Threat Intelligence at its Networking and Security Business Unit (NSBU), pointed out this sad fact at Black Hat 2021 in a presentation showing how Excel 4 macros live on to cause havoc today.

And in 2020, Microsoft warned of phishing emails carrying Excel 4 files with malicious macros.

While chances are you haven’t heard of XLM, since VBA superseded it in 1993, some users still use it and so it’s still supported in contemporary versions of Excel.

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